White House budget director and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) chief Mick Mulvaney told a group of 1,300 bankers this week that he would only meet lobbyists who paid him when he was a member of Congress, but he never stopped meeting them.
According to disclosure forms reviewed by The Daily Beast, Mulvaney has held meetings with at least eight lobbyists and half a dozen executives who contributed to his campaigns after joining the White House.
At least eight registered lobbyists and six other executives who donated to Mulvaney’s congressional campaigns—or whose companies’ political action committees did the same—got an audience with the South Carolina Republican when he landed atop the Office of Management and Budget. That’s according to a Daily Beast analysis of campaign finance records, lobbying disclosure forms, and OMB visitor logs dating from January 2017 through September 2017. [...]
Meetings with lobbyist donors began almost immediately after Mulvaney assumed his post at OMB on February 16, 2017.
The lobbyists and executives Mulvaney has met with during his time at the White House represent industries ranging from airlines to insurance, private developers, capital investment, and health care.
Mulvaney's position of being both the White House budget director and the CFPB chief gives him many tools he can use to influence policy on behalf of the people who financed his ascent.
Mulvaney set up a pay-to-play scheme while he was in Congress and he never abandoned it.